


The Ordeal: A Fairy Tale

by MayContainBlueberries



Category: Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Genre: Fairy Tale Style, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-15
Updated: 2016-02-15
Packaged: 2018-05-20 20:07:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6023056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayContainBlueberries/pseuds/MayContainBlueberries
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There was once a young wizard who set out upon her ordeal. She did not know what she would find, but she trusted in the Powers That Be and so she walked down the road from her house, out of her village and into the great wood.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Ordeal: A Fairy Tale

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Isi7140](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Isi7140/gifts).



> For my cousin [Leah](http://www.isi7140.tumblr.com), your (very late) gift of YW Holiday Anon-ing. I hope you enjoy <3

There was once a young wizard who set out upon her ordeal. She did not know what she would find, but she trusted in the Powers That Be and so she walked down the road from her house, out of her village and into the great wood. As she was walking through the wood she came upon a baby bird who had fallen from its nest.

“Where is your mother, cousin?” The wizard asked, and looking up saw a nest in the tree above, a mother bird looking anxiously over the side, unable to leave her other children to help the fallen one.

The wizard placed the baby bird back in its nest, and the mother said to her: “You are most kind cousin. Please take this feather as a token of my appreciation.” And she plucked a single feather from her wing and gave it to the wizard.

“I’m just doing the Powers’ work,” the wizard replied, and continued on her way.

Not long later she came to a small stream with a dam of twigs and moss blocking it. The stream was pooling behind the dam d dwindled to a trickle on the other side. The wizard saw the shells of water snails and rocks covered in parched algae. She knelt down on the bank of the stream and cleared out the biggest sticks, allowing the stream to wash the rest of the dam away.

“Thank you cousin,” the stream sighed, rushing forwards. “Go well with my blessing.”

“All I do is in service of Life,” the wizard said, and crossed the stream and continued on.

The sun began to set, and the shadows grew darker under the trees. A crescent moon showed pale in the east.

The wizard heard the sound of someone sobbing gently, and came upon a young woman kneeling on the ground.

“Cousin,” she said, “what is the matter?”

The young woman looked up at her through tear filled eyes, “My family has disowned me and I have nowhere to go. I am lost in this wood and I am so scared.”

The wizard held out her hand to the woman, and pulled her to her feet. Then she grasped a strand of moonlight, and tied one end around the woman’s wrist.

“Follow this thread,” she said, “and it will lead you to my home. Tell my mother you met me. You can stay with us for as long as you need.”

The young woman cried out in joy and embraced the wizard. “I cannot thank you enough,” she said. Then she undid her shawl and handed it to the wizard.

“You will need this more than I do if you are going on,” she said, and then turned and followed the glowing path of moonlight away.

The wizard kept walking as the moon rose higher and the stars came out. She could hear their song, quiet through the canopy. They sang out their praise to the One, and it filled her with strength to continue walking through the night.

As the sun began to rise, the wizard at last came to a great castle. She knew that she must enter it, but before she stepped through its gate she heard a strangled sound. A large cherry tree stood beside the castle wall, covered in creepers, choking it. The wizard could barely hear its voice.

“Cousins,” she said to the vines, “can’t you see that you are hurting your sister?”

“We must grow,” they said, “we must cling. We must climb. This is how the One made us.”

“Your sister wants to grow too,” the wizard said, “but she can’t if you are choking her. You can grow together, but you must be more gentle.”

The vines rustled to themselves, but then slowly loosened their grip on the cherry tree. The cherry tree breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

“Thank you cousin,” the tree said, and reached down a branch to give the wizard a single cherry blossom. “Dai stiho.”

“May you go well too,” the wizard said, and finally stepped into the castle.

She found herself in a room with a single grey stone door. It did not open to her touch, but she spoke the syllables of the Mason’s Word and passed through.

She was in a room filled with a thick smoke, and she immediately began to cough. She couldn’t breathe, and her vision narrowed and her knees grew weak. She heard a roaring in her ears, and just before she passed out she remembered the bird’s feather.

She held it to her mouth and nose and it filtered the smoke out of the air, and she was able to walk on to another door. Again she spoke the Mason’s word through the feather and passed through. As she came into the next room the feather crumbled to dust.

The wizard was standing at the bank of a wide river. She could barely make out the other side, so far away. She saw dark shapes moving beneath the surface, and she knew she could not swim across the river.

She tried calling to the creatures in the water, asking them to let her pass.

They replied in hissing voices, “None shall passss. We are hunger. We are deathhh. None shall passsss.”

The wizard began walking along the edge of the river, to see if there was some way to get around it. After she had walked some time she saw something in the river. It was a dam similar to the one she had cleared out of the stream, but much bigger. The wizard took a tentative step onto the dam, and found it would hold her weight. As she walked across it over the river, it fell away behind her, pulled away by the current.  

On the far side of the river was another door. Once more she spoke the Mason’s Word and passed though. She found herself in a howling blizzard, and pulled the thin shawl she had been given by the young woman close around her. As she did so the shawl seemed to grow, until it was a thick winter cloak, and the wizard was able to bow her head and fight through the screaming wind and flying snow. Just as she reached the next door, the cloak was ripped from her hands and flew away behind her. Her teeth immediately began to chatter, and she could not get the Mason’s word out, but the door swung open and she stumbled through.

The door slammed shut behind her and she was in pitch blackness. The darkness leaned in around her, crushing her, and a whispering started up, a whispering that insinuated itself into her mind so she could not think, could not move, could only stand in pain and terror in the heavy darkness.

She tried to cry out, but could not open her lips to make a sound. She tried to remember the light, and suddenly she was humming the song the stars had sung. The whispering eased up, and the darkness seemed less heavy. She started to whistle the song softly, and found she could move. She walked forwards, and began to sing the song, and he voice downed out the whispering and the heavy press of the darkness vanished.

It was still dark, but an emptier darkness, and in it she could sense a presence, ancient and waiting.

“Fairest and fallen,” the young wizard said.

The presence laughed, high and cold.

“Why do you sit here in the dark?” the wizard asked, and drew from a pocket the cherry blossom. It lit up with a soft blue brilliance, and she saw the presence to have the form of an old woman, who flinched and shielded her eyes from the light.

And as the wizard looked at the Power who created entropy, sitting crouched over, hiding from the light, she felt a great pity for It.

She spoke softly to the flower, and encased it in a globe, within which time would not pass and it would bloom eternal.

The leaving the globe and the blossom with the Lone Power, she turned and went home.


End file.
